by Mia Malone
Chapter Eight
Sissy
I was waiting nervously outside Oak for Lee to come and pick me up. While I worked the evening before I’d thought about Joke, and what he’d said. His silly idea that I couldn’t think while aroused was… well, silly, but it had also been surprisingly sweet. Most of all, I’d thought about how he looked when he told me that he liked sex and that he liked it a little dirty.
But what would I say to Lee? Hey, sweetie, saw you fuck yesterday, and liked watching it… God. Should I apologize? Did they know I’d seen them? Joke might have talked to Gibson about it, in which case Gib would totally have told Lee. Or –
“Hey!”
Shit. Okay, here we go, I thought.
“Hey,” I echoed and picked up my bag.
“I have coffee in the car, or you can sleep if you want to. I know you closed at eleven last night, but sometimes it’s hard to unwind after a late shift, isn’t it?”
Her face was open, and she looked happy. She didn’t know.
“I slept like the dead,” I said, which I had.
I had been antsy during the shift, and my eyes had slid to the door every time it opened, but the men were away, so was Jenny, and Lee hadn’t shown up. The night had been slow, and Tug had sent me upstairs at ten, sharing that he was perfectly able to handle the place on his own.
“Get some rest, Siss,” he grunted. “Enjoy skiing tomorrow and please, for the love of God, take my boy out of his misery.”
I’d blinked, wondering if I’d heard what I was pretty sure I’d heard.
“What?” I squealed in a perfectly ridiculous voice that had him grinning at me.
“I’ve known Joke since he was born and worked for him for-fucking-ever. Watched him with women for the better part of close to forty years now. You don’t want him then just tell him. He’s not a douche, and he’ll back off. You want him? Just do him already.”
My brain did the math, and I blinked when I realized he’d seen Joke with women since he was what? Fifteen? I shrugged it off and focused on what he actually was saying.
“I can’t just –”
“Why not?” he cut me off.
Why not indeed? Was it really that simple?
“You’re right,” I murmured. “I should just –”
“Ah, ah, ah,” he said quickly. “Don’t want to know.”
I wiggled my brows at him and grinned but didn’t speak.
“That’s my girl,” he murmured. “Joke is fabulously easy. Wiggle your butt some, and he’s a goner.”
Then he walked into the kitchen to get a couple of plates of kitchen wings, which was one of the few food items we had on the menu. Jenny prepared the food mostly, and we kept it warm and served it. One of the Alvarez-women did a few Mexican dishes every now and then, and we had the usual servings of nacho chips with various dips. Straightforward and no fuss, just like Oak. And like Joke, I’d thought as I walked up the stairs to my place.
I drank my coffee in silence and watched the road as we made our way up toward the slopes. I had a few sensible sentences worked out in my mind and was working on my courage when Lee suddenly turned off and stopped on an outlook. She got out and walked a few steps away, and I followed her.
“I wasn’t going to say anything,” she murmured to the view and my belly clenched. “Didn’t want it to be embarrassing so I thought I’d just… I don’t know. Pretend. But I suck at pretending and it’s just more embarrassing if we don’t say something about it.”
“You know I saw you,” I said.
“Yeah.”
“Gib told you,” I added.
She turned to me and said quietly, “Joke told me, Sissy.”
We watched each other in silence while I thought about what she said. Should I feel weird about him talking to her? Betrayed? I didn’t know, and as I watched her worried gaze, I realized that it mostly felt sweet. Joke had told me what they’d done because he thought that I needed to know, but he wasn’t holding anything back from the woman in front of me either because that’s how he was. Honest and straightforward. And a little dirty.
“Is it gonna freak you out if I tell you I thought it was hot?” I asked quietly.
She exhaled audibly, and a small smile played on her lips.
“I never in my life thought I’d have a conversation like this,” she said.
“God, no,” I agreed. “It’s… I don’t even know what to say. Planned to joke about it, but it feels… I don’t know.”
“You’re okay?”
I blinked. I’d just told her I thought they’d looked hot, hadn’t I?
“Yeah,” I said. “I’m not sure if we’ll… you know. We haven’t even…” I was blabbering, and she put a hand on my arm.
“Gibson was on his way toward a meltdown about it when it happened the first time. He was the one starting it, and it was so incredibly hot, but he was… Anyway. Joke told him that it was easy. It had felt good, that was all it was. If it felt good again, then we’d do it again. If not, we simply wouldn’t.”
That sounded exactly like Joke. Simple and straightforward.
“Okay,” I said. “It might not be what I want.”
“That’s your choice, Sissy. And… it might not be what I want either.”
“Okay,” I repeated, feeling a little bit stupid because of course, it wasn’t just about me.
“I’m not in love with him. You should know that I love Gibson with everything I have in me. I like him immensely, though. And he’s hot,” Lee said. “Not like Gibson, but in no way dog-poop. I’m pretty sure you’ll like whatever you end up doing with him.”
Not like Gibson? Was she insane?
“He said you’re like a sister to him,” I shared with a small smirk, and watched her eyes light up with both warmth and laughter.
“That’s a pretty gross thing to say, all things considered,” she snorted.
“He got that.”
She watched me for a beat and sighed.
“I don’t want this to be weird between us. I like you, Sissy. If anything we did makes you –”
“It won’t. We won’t let it.”
“Yeah,” she said. “We won’t let it.”
I turned toward the view but didn’t really watch it as I gathered up my courage. Then I whispered softly, “It was like watching porn, Lee, but not ugly, mechanical TV-porn. It was sexy, and it felt… It was like watching love like it should be. You shared that.”
“Oh, God,” she said, and I felt her move, so I turned. “You’re making me cry.”
“Honey,” I murmured, but she waved her had in front of her face and blinked furiously.
“I’ve thought about this so much and worried a little about it. Did it make me a freak? It isn’t like we do it often, but it has happened, and I liked it a lot.” She grinned crookedly and added, “A lot. Couldn’t figure out why, but what you said… You put words on it for me.”
Right then I knew without a doubt that we wouldn’t have to worry about it all feeling weird because we both got it. So what if most people thought it was wrong or creepy. It was none of their business, and if we liked it, we simply liked it.
“I’ve done kinkier stuff,” I told her.
“Really?”
“Totally. Way, way, way back when, though. Let’s get in the car again, and I’ll tell you.”
As we drove up the mountain, I shared a part of me that I hadn’t talked about with anyone. Not even as it happened, during my wild-girl days. She squealed at some of it, grinned with me about parts and squeezed my hand when the sad parts spilled into the story. It felt good telling her, and when we walked up to Jenny who was waiting for us at the entrance to the hotel, we were laughing.
***
I leaned back and squinted in the sharp spring sun. My body hurt, although mostly in a good way, and we’d had an absolutely fantastic day. The slopes were amazing, and there weren’t a lot of people around so we’d had them mostly to ourselves. The men had gone up the lift for a last
run, but I’d had enough, and so had Jenny and Lee, and we’d volunteered to grab us a few tables in the sun.
“Oh my God,” a woman at the table next to ours said in a whisper which wasn’t as much a whisper as it was a squeal loud enough for the three of us to hear clearly. “Look. God. Look.”
I felt my lips move in a lazy smile, suspecting I knew exactly what she was prompting her girlfriends to look at. I heard Jenny chuckle, and we shared a grin. Then I turned toward the slopes.
Yes. The men had made their way down and were walking toward us, swaggering slightly in that way men did when they wore boots. Cowboy, biker, or any kind of boots really, including ski boots.
I got why the women were whispering furiously behind me because they were quite a sight. All five of them had black clothes and carried their black helmets. I’d laughed when I saw them and asked if they bought their gear in bulk, which they assured me they didn’t. Except for the helmets, apparently. Their hair was messy, and I saw Joke shake his out and then tie it back again. Mac said something and moved a hand over his short-crop. Paddy was grinning at something Gib was saying, and then Joke’s eyes were scanning the area, looking for us.
“I want the one with the beard,” a voice squealed behind us.
“Which one?”
Both Gib and Day had beards, so it was a relevant question.
“Either.”
A chorus of giggles erupted behind us, and Lee turned with a sweet smile.
“Graybeard is mine,” she said happily.
Silence ensued, and I turned.
“Ponytail,” I said calmly but with my brows raised.
Jenny had also turned, and there was a distinct smirk on her face.
“The gorgeous one,” she shared.
The women were at least twenty years younger than us, and they were pretty. They were also embarrassed.
“Shit,” one of them said. “Sorry, we didn’t…”
“Not a problem,” Lee said with a grin and raised a hand to wave the men over.
My eyes met Joke’s and a slow grin spread on his face. I thought I heard someone say something hoarsely behind me but I ignored it and scrunched up my nose at him in a smile of my own.
***
Joke
They’d skied and showered and was having dinner, and he was not exactly sure what was going on. Sissy had grinned at him in a way that he wasn’t sure how to interpret when she’d walked up to them next to Lee, and then Lee had slid an arm around his waist in a quick hug and whispered, “Hey there, brother of mine.”
Did that mean they’d talked about what he thought they’d talked about? Before he could ask, everyone had been moving, and he hadn’t been alone with Sissy long enough to ask during the day.
He’d also been in absolute awe for large parts of the day.
He’d known she could ski. She’d made the damned national team at eighteen, and he was in no way stupid, so he knew. He was a decent skier himself and had seen some pretty darned good ones over the years. Hell, he was friends with someone who had won an Olympic gold medal. He’d thought he knew what she lost when that man had slammed a steel pipe into her leg, repeatedly.
When he saw her in the slopes, it became clear that he’d had no clue. She skied with a grace and strength that was amazing to watch. Her eyes sharpened, and as she moved down the slope, it had seemed as if she was one with the skis and the snow. With the whole fucking mountain. He’d had to stop and swallow a few times to get rid of the anger that had settled in his throat, making him want to hunt that fucker down and crush him.
Day stood next to him as the others disappeared around a curve. He put a hand on Joke’s shoulder and squeezed.
“We’ll kill him,” he said, reading the look on Joke’s face accurately. “It is what it is, so don’t let it ruin a fucking fantastic day, Joke. But we’ll make him pay.”
Joke pulled himself together because Day was right. Letting what happened ruin their day would mean the asshole took even more from her and he wouldn’t allow that. So it had been a great day. Sissy had laughed and joked with the others. Leaned into him when he put an arm around her to steady her when she kicked off her skis as they took a lunch break. And when they walked up to the three women on the patio at the base, she’d smiled at him with eyes that were so filled with happiness he wanted to pick her up and skip dinner.
“It’s strange, though,” he heard Sissy say and turned his attention back to the table.
“What?” Lee asked and reached for the bottle of white, realized it was empty and looked around the room to locate their waitress.
“It’s strange that the most talented in the group never pursued it.”
“What?” Lee said, and her hand had dropped in surprise.
“Seriously?” Sissy asked back, looking surprised too.
“Shit, Lovey,” Day grunted. “He doesn’t need to know. He’s cocky enough as it is.”
“You all are,” she snapped.
“What are you talking about?” Joke asked.
She turned to him, still looking a little surprised, but also smiling in a way which made him decide they wouldn’t have any damned dessert.
“Day was always good, I suspect,” she said and turned to look at Day who was watching her with an exasperated look on his face. “But more than that, you had that unbeatable will to win and the drive to push yourself. I know because I was just the same. Trained until I puked at the side of the slope, and kept going. Pushed myself so hard because nothing mattered more than that small, golden piece of metal.” She turned to look around the table. “But don’t you know that there’s someone at this table who would have beaten Damien Lewis by a mile?”
“Really?” Paddy said and looked around the table as if someone would raise his hand to acknowledge this fact.
No one did, and Sissy turned slowly until her eyes were aimed straight at Mac.
“You.”
“What?” Mac chuckled.
“You’re gonna tell me you don’t know?”
“Know what?” Mac asked.
He’d stopped laughing and was watching her with a frown.
“Watching you ski… it’s like music. Turning with a timing that’s exceptional, and using the snow to make the best out of everything you do. And that look in your eyes when you go down the slopes? That desire to kill every mogul? Amazing to watch.”
Mac turned slowly to look at Day.
“She’s not lying man,” Day said with a sigh. “Tried so many times to get you to come with me to the slopes, to practice. Got my trainer to come and look at you and he almost wept like a fucking baby. He talked to you. Don’t you remember?”
The silence was complete around the table as Mac and Day watched each other.
“Huh,” Mac said finally and picked up his fork. “I thought he was gay.”
“What?” several voices echoed and Mac shrugged.
“He was all over me, asking me to come to all kinds of places and I just figured he was a bit too enamored with all that was me…”
He grinned widely, wiggled his brows and put a forkful of potatoes in his mouth.
“Ego, much?” Jenny snorted.
Mac kept chewing but put the fork down and made a gesture up and down in front of himself.
“Okay, yeah,” Jenny agreed. “But still.”
“Maybe you’re right,” Mac said to Sissy. “But you’re wrong too. I never wanted it the way he did. The way you did. I wanted other things so I wouldn’t have put in the effort.” He started grinning and turned toward Day. “Although… if you want to give me that medal, I promise to always have it on display at home.”
“Fuck you,” Day snorted, and laughter echoed around the table again.
“Maybe I shouldn’t have told everyone?” Sissy whispered in his ear.
“It was good, babe. Mac needed to hear it. He’s… It was good that you told him the way you did.”
“Okay,” she said.
He could tell that she didn’t understa
nd and he wasn’t going to get into it at a dinner table in a restaurant, so he grinned and leaned in to kiss her softly instead.
***
Sissy
“Thanks,” Gibson said when I held the door by the stairs open for him.
“You’re welcome,” I murmured, and we started our way up toward the restaurant.
My knee hurt a little, and I wondered why they so often seemed to have the restrooms one floor down in restaurants in the ski resorts. Perhaps they had cameras installed and sold tickets to people who wanted to laugh as tired skiers wobbled up and down?
“Meant for talking to Lee,” Gib murmured, and I stumbled on a step.
“Um,” I said as he steadied me. Then I stopped and looked at him. “We won’t be awkward with each other, will we, Gib?”
I put it as a question, and he watched me a while before answering.
“Surprised myself when I initiated it, both Joke and Lee will have told you that.”
I nodded because they had done that.
“After the first time, not so much. I like it. Lee likes it. It’s hot and no. We won’t be awkward.”
“I thought it was hot too,” I admitted and started walking.
We entered the restaurant and saw that Joke and Lee were the only ones sitting. The others were at the bar, and a waitress was putting our desserts on the table.
“Never in my life thought I’d be called a porn-star, though,” Gibson said.
I turned to find him grinning and slapped at his shoulder before sitting down.
“What?” Joke asked.
“Nothing,” I deflected.
As I watched, Gibson took hold of Lee’s hand and slowly dipped her index finger in her dessert. Then he raised it just as slowly, and while our eyes held, he put the finger in his mouth and sucked off the chocolate.
“Jesus,” Joke grunted quietly, but my eyes were locked with Gib’s as I tried to get air through a throat that suddenly felt tight.
“Oh for fuck’s sake,” Paddy snapped. “Did I need to see that?”
The others were approaching the table, and I whipped around to look calmly at Paddy.